2.1.1

Structure

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Structure of Tragedies

One good thing about studying a play is that it is usually neatly divided up into different Acts and scenes.

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Othello

  • Othello is divided up into Five Acts, and these are then further divided into scenes.
  • These helpfully delineate the action.
  • Therefore, we may conceive of plays having the following structure:
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Structure

  • Exposition – where the plot is set in motion.
  • Rising action – where the plot is developed.
  • Climax – where the plot reaches its fullest point of tension.
  • Falling action – where the plot is unravelled.
  • Dénouement – where the plot is solved and concluded.
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Falling action

  • In some plays these are equally proportioned across the Acts, but in the structure of Othello, the rising action dominates the play.
  • The climax comes when Othello confronts Desdemona and kills her.
  • The falling action and dénouement happen very quickly in a tragedy like Othello, with them only occurring in the final scene of the play.
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Tragedy

  • Othello, however, is a tragedy and it follows the typical action of a tragedy.
  • Tragedy (a word derived from the Greek: tragōidia) is a form of drama based on human suffering that invokes an accompanying catharsis in audiences.
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Catharsis

  • Catharsis means a kind of ‘purging of the soul’ that happens when we see a tragedy.
  • The idea is that if we go through this purging, we become better people at the end of it, because we will know how not to behave in such circumstances, and can apply that on our own daily lives.
  • Tragedies take audiences to the limits of comfort because they deal with the very worst aspects of human life.

Tragedy in Othello

Other useful concepts of tragedy (usually brought into our understanding of tragedy through the lens of Greek theories about drama) to bear in mind are the following:

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Miscalculation

  • Othello may be seen as a tragedy of miscalculation: in this kind of play the protagonist's error of judgement has tragic consequences.
  • In Othello, this miscalculation is manipulated by the antagonist Iago.
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Peripeteia and hamartia

  • Tragedy is characterised by ‘seriousness’ (meaning that the subject matter is serious) and involves a great person who experiences a reversal of fortune.
  • This reversal of fortune is sometimes called Peripeteia.
  • The tragic hero often endures hamartia, which is often translated into English as either a ‘character flaw’, or as ‘a mistake.
  • Othello’s hamartia is his ability to be easily swayed by the words of another.
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Anagnorisis

  • Sometimes, a hero first believes that the tragedy is brought about by other external factors, and not their own flaws.
  • Towards the end of the play they finally go through a process of recognition of their own mistake.
  • In Greek dramatic theory this is called anagnorisis which translates to ‘knowing again’.
  • This is when the tragic hero finally realises the error of their ways and the mistakes he or she has made.
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Artistotle

  • Aristotle, who was one of the key ancient Greek thinkers about tragedy, believed that good tragedies were complex, showed suffering, focused on a moral character and contained spectacle.
  • The spectacle was usually the multiple deaths at the end.
  • Tragedies are therefore more than just plays with a ‘sad ending’. They push human experience to its limits.
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‘Domestic’ tragedy

  • Although the tragedy of Othello takes place in a wider society, it is often seen as an early ‘domestic’ tragedy which occurs within a family unit.
  • This predicts the kind of tragedy that would be written later on in literary history in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
  • That may one reason why Othello feels like a very modern play.
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AQA

  • However, with all of these concepts do not apply them too rigidly or you will be seen to be using them in an unapplied way.
  • Aim to mix this classical Greek terminology with your own thoughts and ideas about either love or tragedy in the play.
  • Concentrate on the key words of the task in the examination and only use the terms above to support parts of your argument.

Structure of Othello

It may be useful to think of tragedies in a different way to most comedies.

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Comedy structure

  • Most comedies have the following structure:
    • They begin in an Old World, which is often ordered and restrictive.
    • There then comes a change in that Old World and the characters often rage against it.
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Comedy structure cont.

  • In order to escape that Old World they move to a Green World (often called this because it was a forest or wood), and in the Green World everything becomes topsy-turvy and upside-down.
  • It is only after the chaos of this Green World is resolved that a New World may begin again, often because the main characters become married and there is hope for the future.
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Worlds

  • Tragedies however, still have some of this structure.
  • There is usually an Old World to begin with, and in Othello, we may see this as the political and social system in Venice.
  • The change in the order that occurs is a mixed-race marriage between Othello and Desdemona.
  • It is possible to see from one perspective that their union prompts the chaos which then begins.
  • In effect, this is also a kind of Green World but it is much more dangerous and starts to spiral out of control.
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Cleansing

  • In essence, in tragedy, no easy solution is found to end this Green World and disorder dominates, resulting in the death of the main characters.
  • It is only after they have died and been ‘cleansed’ from the world that a New World can begin again.
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Comedy

  • Ironically, whereas in Comedy, marriage solves the problems in the play; in a tragedy like Othello, it is marriage which initiates all of the problems.

Jump to other topics

1Context

2Act One: Summaries & Themes

3Act Two: Summaries & Themes

4Act Three: Summaries & Themes

5Act Four

6Act Five

7Character Profiles

8Key Themes

9Writing Techniques

10Critical Debates

11Approaching AQA English Literature

12Issues of Assessment

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